His Nightmared Reality
by Roxie Faye
Summary: Alternate Universe. Trisha is alive. Edward is kidnapped, with damage to his sanity. Complete summary inside. Rated for strong angst and an unstable Edward.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I don't own Fullmetal Alchemist (Hagane no Renkinjutsushi). I'm not making any money from writing this - I do it merely for fun, from an inspired dream. And I don't have any money, so please don't sue.

Summary: Alternate Universe. Edward, Al, and Winry are living in modern times (i.e., 2006). Edward and Al managed to bring their mother back and succeed! And Al hasn't lost his body. Picture him looking a lot like him in the movie (but with different clothes: blue shirt and jeans, because Ed is wearing his traditional ensemble.) Ed's made enemies he doesn't know about, and they want to kidnap him. How will he get out of this situation?

Author Notes: This story was inspired by a dream I had last night, May 5, 2006 - May 6, 2006. I dreamt the entire story, so I know exactly what I'm going to write. ...I just have to write it. The dream is a little different than what I'm actually writing for the fanfic. When I'm all finished, I'll post up a description of MY dream. I don't want to give you guys one now, or you'll know what's going to happen!

Because this is AU, there's a lot of things that are different. Most of this first chapter explains HOW things have been different. It's a little boring, but please stick it out and read - it's important to understand the background to this fic. I promise there's a lot of delusional, angsty, depressed Edward to come in the next few chapters.

And also: Shout out to my Academic Decathlon team! The unfamiliar names in the second paragraph are them.  
Special Shout out to my good friend Lumi, who was the role of Al at one point in my dream! hugs you Love ya, dear!

Warnings: Lots of Edward angst, lots of delusional Edward. Psychological, mental, (and slight physical) TORTURE! Torture induces extreme irrationality in Edward. **HUGE AMOUNTS OF ANGST AND AN UNSTABLE EDWARD! TURN BACK NOW IF YOU FEEL UNCOMFORTABLE.** NOT GONNA BE A FLUFF STORY - I TELL YOU THAT RIGHT NOW.

* * *

**His Nightmared Reality**

The Elrics lived in a modern style house at the bottom of a hill, in the small town of Rizenbool. Being a rural town, their closest neighbors - the Rockbells - were at least a four minute walk away.

A lonely asphalt road, curved away from the hill and the house served as the driveway to the Elric's home at the bottom of a hill. Winry and her friends from the village - Travis, Alice who was most often accompanied by John, and sometimes Tom and Orissa - often walked along that road, and down the hill to visit It must be made clear, though, that it wasn't as though the house was in a spread out meadow, surrounded by a hill on one side. No, it was more like a Californian-style, glass-modern affair practically lodged into the side of a steep hill. To get to the front door from the road, one had to go down a series of twisting steps built into the side of the hill. The edifice was pressed up against the steep hill.

In retrospect, its unusual location would become an astounding (and not in a good way) fact for Edward, once the entire incident was over. It would be an, unintentional, tactical error.

It was a warm, May day, around seven o'clock in the evening, and dusk was just starting to set in. Edward was seated comfortably on the couch, in the living room writing away in his note book, experimenting in it with different transmutation circles. The living room was off to the left of the main entrance hallway. Alphonse was on the other side of that hallway, in his and Ed's bedroom, quietly reading a book. And Trisha was in the kitchen, making dinner for company that was coming over.

Yes, Trisha Elric. She had died when both Edward and Alphonse were younger, but they refused to be cheated out of their mother. Both the two talented brother vowed to bring her back using alchemy. They slaved away over books, their father's old note books. They learned from a real teacher, and then finally, Edward, with his teeth gritted, joined the state's army as an alchemist, in order to obtain more information on what he sought. He was the youngest person ever, to be admitted as a state alchemist at age twelve, and stayed at his job for the minimum three years, while gathering all the information needed to make the transmutation. At ages fifteen and fourteen, Edward and Alphonse had all they needed to bring back their mother. Edward resigned from his post in the army, they came back home, and succeeded in what achieving what no one else had done - performed a human transmutation. Thanks to her two sons, Trisha Elric was alive again.

Prices had been paid, but Ed didn't care, and neither did Al Trisha herself was slightly different in looks and demeanor. A little bit slender with more styled clothes, and _slightly_ less cheerful, but what could you expect from a transmutation? If her smile was only 90 watts instead of 100, it was a small difference.

Ed was different, too. His left leg had been taken to bring back his mother, and his right arm was taken in exchange for keeping Alphonse. He had almost lost Alphonse to the other side of the gate during the transmutation, but with quick thinking, he had stopped the gate from taking Alphonse's body. El had to live with automail, but he didn't think it was so bad because Winry was the _best_ mechanic ever, and he was working on a way to get his limbs back, anyway. Ed and Al had their mother, and that was quite enough for them.

Of course, human alchemy was still forbidden. Quite. So her existence was hushed up, and only a few people in Rizenbool knew of her true identity, while other believed that a kind woman had adopted the two boys to raise. (And still others had no idea the Elric brothers had gained back a mother).

Edward had made friends, with adults no less, during his days in the military, and it was one of his friends, Maes Hughes, that was visiting him in Rizenbool today. Ed liked Maes, and Al liked him, too. He was an outgoing, easy going, likeable kind of guy, and even his obsession with pictures of his four year old daughter was... endearing.

However, Ed wasn't looking forward to his arrival. Not because he didn't like _Maes_, but because he didn't like who was coming with him: Colonel Roy Mustang. Mustang had been his commanding officer during his service at the military. He was arrogant, cocky, womanizing, lazy when it came to paperwork, and always insulting to Edward. Ed couldn't count the times he was made fun of for his height, or lack thereof, his hair, his short temper, or any number of things. He had _hated_ reporting to Mustang after missions, and he was going to hate seeing him now.

Yeah, sure, Mustang had helped Edward in his quest. He sent Ed on missions where it looked as though someone would have information on human transmutation, and he never told the higher ups what Ed was doing, exactly. But Ed still didn't think he owed Roy Mustang anything - he knew perfectly well that he was Roy Mustang's "brilliant find" that would eventually get him promoted to a higher rank. As far as Ed was concerned, the two of them were even.

So Ed was waiting for Maes to arrive with Mustang. Distracted from his work for a moment, he cringed at the thought of seeing Roy's smug grin that made him look like he owned the place. That was right before things went to hell, and it would be a while before Edward thought of Mustang again.

There was a loud _bang_ as a something flew through the glass window, ripped through the curtains, and barely missed hitting Edward, flying over the top of his head.

'_What the hell was that?_' he thought, a second before the answer came. '_A bullet!_' Loud noises of a fight right outside the front door met Ed's ears. He quickly ran to the door, and flung it open only to find Maes and the Colonel engaged in a fight with two people, right outside his house! Maes was contending with a human palm tree that had dodged the bullet and was now dodging every thrust of Hughes' blade, while the Colonel was trying to torch a quick moving woman with wavy black hair.

He noticed Edward watching the scene, and shouted to him, "It's an ambush on **you**, fullmetal! Flee while we hold them off. Go!"

An ambush? On _him_? Sure, he had made enemies working for the state, and these people were probably some of them, but Edward had never though anyone would attempt to find him in Rizenbool and _kill_ him. But before he thought about his own safety, Edward's mind flew to his brother, Alphonse. "I have to get Al first!" he shouted back.

"Edward, no! Get out, _now_!" Mustang shouted back at him.

But Ed wasn't listening. He went back inside the house, turned right and down the hallway into their bedroom to warn Al. "Al!" he said, catching his brother just on the other side of the door. It seemed he had heard the commotion, too. "Something dangerous is happening, Al. There's someone out side who pretty much wants to kill me. Sneak out the back door, run to Winry's house, and don't look back! I'll tell mom to do the same."

"Brother, you're not thinking of fighting them!"

"I am, Al. They're my enemies, apparently. Please, go. I don't want you or mom to get hurt!" Ed was pleading with his brother, counting on the fact that he was older and always bossed Al to be enough for Al to listen to him. Al nodded his head in agreement, and Ed wasted no time darting out the other way. He called his mother's name a few times, but couldn't find her - not even in the kitchen, so he shouted the same instructions he had given Alphonse, before returning to the fight outside, to aid Mustang and Hughes.

He couldn't have come at a better time, because it was apparent that Maes was injured - stabbed in his side, and still fighting pineapple head. Edward rushed into help, clapping his hands together to transmute his automail into a sharp blade.

Mustang was royally pissed off with Edward refusing to listen to him. "Edward! What did I say? Go NOW!" But he couldn't make Ed do anything, while he was still dodging the woman who had some sort of clawed weapon, and trying to set her on fire.

Ed was trying to damage the person in front of him, who was yelling back witty insults, but the black-haired woman growled at his enemy, "stop talking to the boy, and grab him, Envy!" Envy was not listening, so the woman raised her free hand, and suddenly stabbed Edward in the shoulder with... her entire hand? It had extended into a long, pointed projectile, and he wondered '_Who are these people?_' before doubling over in pain. He cried out while Envy picked him up and began dragging him away, up the stairs.

He struggled while his captor was dragging him away. Ed could see the woman stab Roy in the leg before also turning, right behind Envy. Ed was still struggling as he saw the vague outline of his mother moving sideways away from the house. It looked like she was running toward the Rockbell's house - she was alright. Ed's vision shifted for a moment, and she looked red. Her hair and her face looked red, but then he wondered if it was the blood coming from his shoulder affecting him. He noticed a shadow coming closer to Trisha. It looked like another attacker, but before Edward could shout out anything, there was a sharp blow to his head from Envy, and he fell into unconsciousness.

* * *

Wow! How did you like that? I REALIZE that Edward would never be defeated so easily. Never. But it happened in my dream, probably because before I turned into Edward, I was me, and I'm rather weak. It's my dream, just go with it, please.

The next couple chapters will be entirely weird (like this one), and full of Edward angst. He's getting more delusional the longer he's kept captive.


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I don't own Fullmetal Alchemist (Hagane no Renkinjutsushi). Never have, never will (although I wish I did). I'm not making any money off this; it's purely for entertainment (and a product of my own dreams). I don't have money, so please don't sue.

Author's Note(s): Wow. Thank you for your reviews. I really appreciate them! I've never actually posted a chaptered story, nor ever done it like this, as a WIP. So, this is a totally new experience, and I have to admit, I fear that I shall become a review fiend. >.> You know, I've never before understood what authors meant when they begged for reviews, or when they thanked their reviewers for them, but I think I understand now. So I sincerely thank all of you for your reviews. They made me want to get the next chapter out as soon as I could.

Oh, and er, in case you didn't guess, this is based on the anime version of FMA. (Although, I think that's implied, and usually it's manga-verse fics that are duly noted. Right?)

Note on the angst: I'll try to include it as much as possible. I thought I would get in more, in this chapter. Apparently not. ;o; Merriam-Webster online definition of 'angst': "a feeling of anxiety, apprehension, or insecurity." That's exactly the type of angst Ed is (hopefully) going to get. In the fanfic world, angst can have a lot of different connotations to it, but uh, that's the type of angst I mean.

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**His Nightmared Reality  
Chapter 2**

Ed woke up in a darkened room. It was dark, but not complete darkness. An extremely tinted window that Ed would notice later provided minimal light, making the room appear hazy. The lighting would remind him of a child's naptime room; dark with just a little bit of light poking through curtains. Of course, there were no curtains - just the tinted window.

But before he recognized any of that, the first thing he noticed was the polished, hardwood floor beneath him. A sharp feeling of pain in his left shoulder helped him notice the second thing - his wound had been taken care of. He wondered if there was a bandage tied around it, but he couldn't look to see in the darkness, and touching the area with his automail arm wouldn't register any senses.

Ed leared forward a little, intending to stand up, and was a little surprised when, before he could do anything of the sort, his body met something both soft and hard. He frowned, before realizing a moment later that it was a couch. He had hit the frame and the cushion.

Looking up at it, he first discerned the color. It was a dirty robin's egg blue in a smooth texture. At this point, Ed noticed the lighting situation, and shortly afterward, his line of sight moved to the couch where a red backpack - his red backpack, actually, was laying. Obviously whoever had taken him had returned to the house to pick things up. Although why they had done so, Ed didn't know.

He reached out to grab the bag when a taunting voice stopped him. "Ah, ah, ah," it tutted at him as though her were a child reaching for something that he wasn't allowed to touch. A hand swatted Ed's metal one away and he looked up to se a figure sitting on the couch. The face was shrouded in darkness, but he could see a general outline.

It was a woman (although he had deciphered that from the voice). Ed guessed that it was the woman who had stabbed him, judging by the wavy hair and curved figure, but he couldn't be completely certain. It could have been any other female with similar feature, too. He couldn't tell without a face.

He realized that she was treating him like a child, and he growled at that. "Who the hell are you? What do you think you're doing! Why did you kidnap me?"

"Oh, that's cute! You think I'm going to _answer_ your questions. Seeing as you are captured, you're in no position to be asking me anything."

"Captured? Hardly. I think I'll rectify that situation." Edward gave a wicked smirk, and since it was painful to move his left shoulder, he brought his right arm to his left side, and clapped his hands together, placing them on the floor. He was hoping to cause the floor to rise up, creating space between them and enough of a distraction for him to be able to escape. Ed's eyes opened wide when nothing happened to the floor, and the alchemic power he had put into the floor returned to his hands, giving him a shock.

Ed reeled backward from the pain, and above him, he could hear the woman laughing at him. His hand stung, and he didn't know what the heck had happened, but nevertheless, Ed clapped his hands together and tried again. He met the same results, only the shock from the energy bouncing back at him was starting to affect his whole arm.

She was still laughing at his attempts at alchemy, but calmed down enough to offer a gracious explanation. "Your alchemy is of no use in this room, your prison. On the outside of this room there are transmutation circles that catch any alchemic energy in here, absorb some of it, and bounce the rest back at you. Try all you want, Edward, alchemy can't help you now."

He growled. "I refuse to believe that!"

"Oh? Then tell me why your simple transmutation to raise the floor isn't working? You're the prodigy alchemist after all. Youngest to earn the rank of state alchemist, only known person to perform a complete human transmutation, hmm?"

Ed was positive she was smirking at him, but he didn't find it so funny. She was _extremely_ dangerous if she knew that he and his brother had performed human alchemy and succeeded. It meant she knew something that no one was supposed to know, and if she could obtain that information, she was very dangerous.

"Oh yes, I know all about that. I know everyth-" Before she could finish her sentence, Edward was already on his feet, ready to take a strike at her. Never mind any rules about not hitting girls. With the way she was talking to him - taunting him almost - she was inviting a hit. He felt satisfied when metal connected with the side of her face.

She looked surprised, but made no signs to indicate she felt pain. "You're such a naughty child, Edward!" She did not punch him in return, but instead slapped his face with equal vigor that he had given to her. She slapped him again, and to his astonishment, he fell _over_ from the force. Ed's left shoulder hit the floor, causing him to wince in pain. Yes, she was definitely dangerous.

The woman returned to the couch and picked up the red backpack with whatever contents were in there. Ed wanted to know what they had taken from his home, and though he was hurt, he still asked, "What's in there?"

She stepped over his body on the floor before replying, "Your cell phone, your brother's phone, a few of your alchemic research notebooks, a hairbrush, a book on alchemy, and a picture of your brother. Goodness only knows _why_ he even bothered to take them. Although I may blow up the picture of your brother and pin it to the wall for a dartboard." Edward made a lunge for her, but she kicked him away. "Don't even try it. And no alchemy, either - you'll only end up hurting yourself and we can't have that." She opened the door, and light streamed in for a moment before the door closed again, the darkness returned, and he heard a _click_ on the other side; they had locked him in.

'_That's funny_,' Ed said to himself, '_I thought her hair was black, not brown_.'

xXxXxXx

Hours later, or what must have been hours and hours later, he was no longer pondering her hair color - he could have mistaken it in the first place, or it could have been a cohort - but her last words.

'_You'll only end up hurting yourself, and we can't have that_.' It was ironic, considering she had kicked him seconds before uttering that, and to some, it may have seemed that she was only being sarcastic, as his captor. But hours of waiting in the hazy darkness that eventually got very dark like night had him thinking more deeply. When he had punched her, she could have begun to fight back, but the woman only slapped his face, as though chastising him. It wasn't so malicious. Ed thought, '_They're keeping me alive for something. They need me for a reason - to do something for them, maybe_._ I'm going to be stuck here until they need me._' But a spark flickered in his mind. He realized that if they were to take him somewhere else at some point, he would have a chance to escape during that time. ...As long as he wasn't knocked out, that is. Ed hoped _that_ wouldn't happen.

He attempted his alchemy a few more times, with no success. In fact, his body started to ache faintly. Ed decided he would need to be in good shape if his captors decided to come back, so he stopped trying alchemy for the moment, and lay down on the couch to sleep.

xXxXxXx

Ed woke up the next morning. The only way he could tell was by faint light coming through the window. If it had been night still, no light at all would have entered. Though a little groggy as he sat up on the couch, Ed's brain registered that his body didn't ache nearly as bad, and neither did his shoulder.

Glancing over to the door, he squinted through the dim light, and made out a plate and drinking cup. Eagerly, Ed rose from the couch, and walked over to the door to seize the plate. There was a small round table surrounded by four chairs on the left side of the room, but Ed just sank down against the wall and started to eat breakfast.

The only utensils were chopsticks - inappropriate for the dish - but he made use of them to pick up the eggs and diced potatoes on the plate, and used his hand for the toast, occasionally taking a sip of water. Halfway through eating, Edward frowned. Vegetables, carbs, and protein. If they wanted to make Ed malnourished, they wouldn't be sending him balanced meals. They were going to use him for something, and Ed didn't like that thought at all.

When he was done with breakfast, Edward got up and walked around the room, both looking and feeling to get the layout of the room in the hazy light. It took him a while to do this, and finally he concluded that the length of the room - which was very long - was probably around 22 feet. However, it was really quite narrow, only about 8 feet wide. The sofa was in the middle of the room along the back wall, and the door stood directly across from it (Ed had tried to open it many times, but to no avail). When facing the sofa, the window was on the wall to the right, and there was a small, round, wooden table with four chairs in a nook to the left. When sitting in the chair along the far wall, the outline of a door was noticeable, and Ed was relieved to find a closet sized bathroom and sink inside. There was nothing else in his strange prison, and the only other peculiarity was the floor to ceiling tinted window that let in very little light.

It was a thick, strong plastic/glass affair that didn't break or show any signs of a slight dent when Edward tried to punch it. He tried alchemy, thinking the window might be a weak point in whatever was holding his power back, but got a familiar shock for his troubles. It reminded him a lot of strongly tinted glass windows on a car, but instead of getting light in and being able to see out, as would be the case if he were sitting in_side_ the car, this window was flipped, so that he was on the side that you couldn't look through and see anything on the other side of it. Ed wondered if he were standing outside, would he be able to peer through the window and clearly see the room inside? It didn't matter, he supposed.

He sat on the couch and the minutes ticked by, turning into hours. The room grew slightly brighter as the sun rose for the day. Ed hated not having something to do, and it was going to drive him crazy! He wondered how long he had been here, and thought back. The first time he had been in here, the lighting looked a _lot_ like this. It was afternoon, now, so it was probably yesterday that he had woken up in his 'prison.' But the initial attack had been at dusk, which could only mean it was the second day since he had been kidnapped.

Ed started to panic. Two days, and he was getting antsy. He didn't know how long he was going to last at this point. He sat at the table, in the dark, wondering what he was going to do. It was a while he sat, staring off into infinity before a noise from the outside world, coming through the walls, interrupted his monotony.

"WHAT?" on the other side of the wall with the door was followed by a loud _thud_, as though slamming a fist on a table, or stamping a foot.

Somewhat startled, Edward quickly got up and rushed to the direction of the noise, pressing his side against the wall to hear better. On the other side, he heard a woman's voice say, "You heard me. He'll be staying here until further notice." It was a lusty, woman's voice, but naturally so. In fact, it sounded rather irritated at the moment, and he wondered how someone could sound seductive all the time while still inflecting anger, irritation, or sadness into it.

"This is absurd!" Another woman's voice (which sounded a lot like his captor) said in response. "She tells you to get him, and then comes up with an 'oh, oops, we screwed up, so you'll have to keep him until further notice until we figure it out?' If I didn't want this so badly, I wouldn't put up with it."

"Think of it as equivalent exchange." Her voice sounded highly amused, and Ed could picture this woman, whoever she was, smirking at the moment. "Put up with it for a while, and you'll get your reward in the end."

"Yeah yeah, shut up. I've already dealt with him long enough."

"I'm only the messenger. If you're so upset, go talk to Dante." It sounded like a challenge, and there was silence as it was not taken. The lusty woman continued, "Don't kill him and don't incapacitate him. If he can't do it, we'll all know who to blame," and at the end, her voice was threatening. There was another flurry of noises, _clicking_ of high heels on a floor, the slam of a door, and Ed assumed that the woman had left.

Shit. Ed swore mentally. He didn't know how long he was going to be here? He needed to find a way out as soon as possible.

He spent a while trying to use alchemy until dinner came, with no results. He tried, in fact, all week to use alchemy in some sort of way. He used it in varying degrees - giving it all the power he had, and trying it whisper soft, with no affect. He used it on the floor, the walls, the water in the bathroom, the air, the furniture, the glass again, all with no change. The shock he got made him tired and weak, and he didn't think he had ever ached worse in his entire life. It wouldn't help him to be so weak while he was in the hands of kidnappers, so he eventually had to give up on the alchemy. Besides, the alchemy wasn't helping him either, so there was probably nothing he could do about it.

It was then that Edward began to loose hope for escaping. A miniscule amount lost, not much, but still it was something. He knew he was in trouble, especially since he couldn't see another way out.

* * *

AH! Wow. Um, just to let you know, my dream's not THAT descriptive. Most of that I made up, based loosely on the dream. In fact, the whole alchemy thing wasn't even an issue. I think, because, in the beginning, before I turned into Ed (heh), I was myself, and I don't use alchemy. By the time I was Edward, he was so crazy I don't think it would have occurred to him. There wasn't a bathroom, or even a door in my dream. It was an entirely open space that by now, fictional Edward points up would have escaped from. 

There's going to be a lot of me making stuff up, to convey events and emotions of my dream. There's also going to be a lot of plot holes, as dreams usually contain a lot of them, and don't make sense at all. I'm doing my best to cover them, but I know there's still going to be a lot. I apologize, it's just the way it's going to be. :(

By the way, the cell phones **have** to be in here. They were in my dream, and appeared later in it, too. It was a bit of a breaking point (heh) in the dream, and because they were in it twice, I needed to put them into the story. All the rest of that crap in the backpack is irrelevant. Cellphones in dream. I know, weird.


End file.
